Another gem from Albert Kahn's big color photography project. A true colour photo from Russia around 1912. Real colour photograph, not colorated!
Sunday, May 10, 2009
Albert Kahn (..cont.)
Another gem from Albert Kahn's big color photography project. A true colour photo from Russia around 1912. Real colour photograph, not colorated!
Citroen DS
Most beautiful car ever made, all categories. The Citroen DS. Another example of remarkably innovative French engineering. Decades ahead of its time.
Fouga Magister
This cool little twoseater training jet is the Fouga Magister. It's so French. It's as much part of the French 60ies as Louis de Funes and the Citroen DS. These planes were used to train Dassault Mirage fighter jet pilots.I remember seeing these planes with their characteristic V-tails when on summer vacation in France. They would come in low over the beaches. Beautiful airplane.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Gamla Stans Cykel
Visited this bikestore in Stockholm's Gamla Stan (the old city) during a lunch break to buy a Brooks saddle for my Biomega bike. This store is just a small miracle. Almost like a museum. Beautiful century old vintage bikes, enamel bike brand signs, vintage saddles. Truly passionate owners. This is the best bike store in Stockholm.Stora Nygatan 20
Stockholm
www.gamlastanscykel.se
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Pashley
Very very nice bicycle. The Pashley Guv'nor. Based on a racer the company produced in the 30ies, it comes with Reynolds 531 tubing, 28'' wheels, and a Brooks leather saddle. So cool. At 695 British Pounds it is not even unreasonably priced.Pashley Cycles is England's longest established cycle manufacturer. Established in 1926 and based in Stratford- upon-Avon
Do check it out this bicicletta favoloso at:
http://www.pashley.co.uk/guvnor/gallery.html
Crockett & Jones
A year ago or so, I walked into a gentleman's shoestore offering classic English bootmaker Crockett & Jones. I was looking for a pair of black Jodhpurs, but the styles on offer were not really to my liking. I was looking for more of a 70ies round-nosed look. No problem said the salesperson, who invited me to his office. There he produced Crockett & Jones catalogues dating back to pre-war days.He informed me that Crockett & Jones could still produce one-off pairs of boots or shoes from past collections, since they keep an archive of all the mandrels and molds of their old styles. The boot would be a standard size - eight and a half in my case - not made-to-measure, but if would be a boot identical to the boot produced decades ago. Not a reproduction, not a copy, but the real thing, produced by Crockett & Jones with the same mandrels, molds and tools. This service was priced accordingly, approximately at regular retail price plus fifty percent.
I chose a pair of black 1972 Crockett & Jones Jodhpurs that set me back five hundred euros, with a three month delivery time. Well worth it. I have now worn the boots for one winter season, and they're absolute heaven.
http://www.crockettandjones.co.uk/
Monday, May 4, 2009
Moods of Norway
A quirky colourful Norwegian fashion brand. Love their necklabel text:Made in Europe by Really Really Pretty Blond Girls
Check them out at:
http://www.moodsofnorway.com/
The Green Fairy
Absinthe, an almost mythical green-colored alcoholic drink that for many years was forbidden in most European countries. The Green Fairy, as Absinthe is sometimes called, is anise flavored and made with the Artemisia Absinthium (wormwood) herb, which gives it its distinctive flavour.Spurred by the teetotalism movement at the beginning of the 1900s, absinthe was publicly associated with violent crimes and social disorder. As one critic put it: Absinthe makes you crazy and criminal, provokes epilepsy and tuberculosis, and has killed thousands of French people. It makes a ferocious beast of man, a martyr of woman, and a degenerate of the infant, it disorganizes and ruins the family and menaces the future of the country.
In 1906, Belgium banned the sale and distribution of absinthe. The Netherlands in 1909; the United States banned it in 1912, and France in 1915.
Since a few years back Absinthe is once again manufactured and available and has since regained some of its former cult following.
I for one am a big fan!
Grappa di Barolo
Marolo is an Italian grappa producer. My favourite: Grappa di Barolo, created from a distillation of Barolo Nebbiolo pomace. Aged in barrels, amber-toned in color (so not the usual colorless grappa), with an intense aroma particularly rich in vanilla, almonds, licorice, and cocoa. Very elegant. Warmly recommended. And the etched label with the Kingfisher is just absolutely beautiful.Saturday, May 2, 2009
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
President Kennedy receives a gift salamander from his nephew, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., in the Oval Office in March 1961.
Amalia Rodriguez
On 25 April 1974 the Carnation Revolution in Portugal ended the dictatorship of Antonio Salazar, one of the last Fascist regimes of Western Europe.Amalia Rodriguez is Portugal's Queen of Fado.
Her song Grandola Vila Morena is the hymn of the Carnation Revolution and it still gives me goosebumps everytime I hear it.
Umm Khalsoum
Umm Khalsoum was a fabulous and world famous Egyptian singer who reached the summits of her fame in the 60ies and 70ies. She is perhaps the biggest Arabic music artist ever to have lived. In the Middle East everybody knows and loves her. She was referred to as "The Lady" by Charles de Gaulle and was regarded as "The Incomparable Voice" by Maria Callas. The rich and famous would fly in from the entire region for her concerts at Kasr el Nil. Muammar Khaddafi's revolution in Libya was postponed because of a radio broadcast of an Umm Khalsoum concert. She has sold more records than The Beatles, and her funeral in Cairo in 1975 was attended by four million people, making it one of the largest gatherings in human history.It is known that she had the ability to sing as low as the second octave, as well as the ability to sing as high as between the seventh and the eighth octaves at her vocal peak. Her remarkable ability to produce approximately 14,000 vibrations per second with her vocal chords, her unparalleled vocal strength (no commercial microphone utilized for singing could withstand its strength, forcing her to stand at a 1- to 3-meter radius away from one), and her voice’s unique and breathtaking beauty that surpassed convention arguably made her one of the voices of all time
This is a YouTube video from 1966 of The Pearl of The Nile singing Al Atlal (The Ruines), my alltime favourite piece of Arabic music.
Dry cleaners
On our way from a nice dinner at bistro Mäster Anders on Kungsholmen, we passed this wonderful 1950s drycleaner's sign on St Eriksgatan.
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